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A member of the public saw Foster staggering around drunkenly with the dog at Lympstone railway station close to the Commando training base.

The dog started walking around the witness’s leg and appeared to be ‘cowering’.

Foster staggered over, picked it up and took it away, the court was told.

The witness then saw him put his hands ‘around the dog’s neck and with his arms outstretched he threw the dog to the floor’, said the prosecutor.

“He stepped forward and kicked the dog,”

The witness shouted ‘Oh my God he’s thrown the dog’.

Commando Training Centre Lympstone

Ms Baker said the dog fled to the nearby Swan Inn but Foster went to get it and emerged with it a few moments later. The Marine then ran off down the footpath and was found later with dog in the car park of the base.

When a senior officer approached he swore and told him to leave him alone.

Police used Captor spray before arresting the defendant.

A vet examined the dog and found it had a graze and some bleeding near the eye but was not badly hurt.

Caroline Salvatore, mitigating, said at the time of the offence Foster had been drinking heavily. He had been the defendant in a military court martial which had taken four years to clear him of bullying offences. The process had taken its toll on him emotionally. The defendant had been in the armed forces since he was 17 and it was all he knew.

He couldn’t remember the dog incident and said the idea he could be cruel to an animal shocked him.

The defendant admitted causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal.